


The Reckless and the Brave

by VforVitaly



Category: The Following, Warehouse 13
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-25
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-09 12:00:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/773957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VforVitaly/pseuds/VforVitaly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Warehouse agents learn that it is really an artifact that is giving Joe Carroll the ability to accrue such loyal followers, and get them to both kill and die for him, they have to team up with the FBI, forcing Steve to work with someone he hasn’t seen in years. His estranged twin brother, Mike.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This work is set after the events of The Following episode Havenport, and the Warehouse 13 episode Second Chance. Also, this is my first fanfiction, so please don't have high expectations.

“What’s up, Artie?” Claudia collapsed into the office chair, spinning around twice before focusing her attention on the older man. Steve entered the office behind her, folding his arms across his chest, silently, patiently awaiting the answer to the question that his best friend and partner had just posed.  


“We got a ping,” Artie stated.  


“Oh, fancy.” Claudia grinned. “Where is it? Dubai? Bangkok? The Caribbean?”  


“Havenport, Maryland,” Artie stated, turning to look at Claudia and Steve. “And original copy of Poe’s Annabel Lee has turned up, and-”  


“Poe again?” Claudia sighed. “The last time we had a Poe artifact, someone got sucked into a wall. Man, that was not pretty.”  


“What?”  


“Before your time, Jinksy,” Claudia stated, reaching up and patting Steve on the arm, offering him the sort of “shit eating grin” that only she could get away with.  


“Okay, well what are we looking at?” Steve asked, as always, more focused on the immediate goal than Claudia was.  


“There’s a man called Joe Carroll, I don’t know if you’ve heard about him-”  


“The serial killer?” Claudia asked. “The one who escaped from prison and started a cult? Holy smokes, he has an artifact? Wow, even I did not see that coming, what about you, eh Jinksy?”  


“Um, what?” Steve gulped.  


“Joe Carroll, serial killer, Edgar Allen Poe, Cult? Oh come on, I know you’ve heard about this guy, he’s all everyone’s heard about!”  


“Oh, yeah, sorry, I just, I wasn’t totally there for a second, I’m good now, what’s the deal?”  


“He has an original, handwritten copy of Poe’s Annabel Lee. It draws people to him, gets them obsessed with not just beauty, but the beauty of death. He’s using it to get people to not only kill for him, but die as well, and the FBI has got him cornered, but they don’t know what they’re dealing with. I’m sending the two of you in, so that you can retrieve the artifact and neutralize it before too many more people get hurt. He’s been at this for years, and we’re just now finding out about it. Best to shut him down as quickly as possible. The Agent in charge knows your coming, everyone else-”  


“Can’t Pete and Myka take this one?” Steve interrupted. “I mean, it sounds like kind of a big deal, and they’re more experienced.”  


“They’ve just left on assignment to Nigeria. Some pendant is causing women to strangle their husbands in a fit of jealous rage, it’s totally badass, but I mean, awful,” Claudia supplied.  


“Oh.”  


“Something wrong, poopy pants?” Claudia asked.  


“No, nothing, just sounds kind of dangerous.”  


“Jinksy,” she looked at him, shaking her head. “Everything we do here is dangerous, and that’s never stopped you before. I mean come on, you died buddy. What could be scarier than that?”  


“Nothing,” he muttered.  


“Ooookay, well I’m gonna go back.” Claudia got up, disappearing to get ready for the trip.  


“Artie, I-”  


“I know.” Artie looked at Steve, focusing on him. “But we all have to do things we don’t want to do some times, and we all have to work with people we’d rather not see again. This is a very dangerous artifact, and you and Claudia are the ones who are going to bring it back for me. Myka and Pete are hot on the trail of theirs, and bringing them back now would upset their progress. The Poe document needs to be contained immediately.”  


“I understand.” Steve nodded, taking a deep breath as he turned to leave.  


“Oh, and Agent Jinks?”  


“Yeah?” He turned back around.  


“If I were you, I’d tell Claudia before she finds out on her own. You know how she gets when you keep things from her.”  


“Yes, sir.” Steve gave a mock salute and headed out of the room, trying to get his head around just how he was going to tell Claudia what Artie had just advised he get out in the open.

\--------------------------

“Okay, so we have a psycho-charismatic serial killer with a legit cult following, an original Poe poem, and the FBI to deal with here, should be a piece of cake, right?” Claudia looked to Steve as she settled in on the plane.  


“Yeah.”  


“Okay, what’s up? You’ve been acting all weird about this case since we got assigned to it, so are you gonna tell me what’s going on, or do I have to pout?”  


“No, I just…” Steve shifted uncomfortably in his chair, trying to find the words to have a conversation that he really, really didn’t want to have, but at the same time, he knew that Artie was right, that it was mandatory for him to tell Claudia about this. It was going to hurt that he had kept it from her for so long, but it would be worse if she figured it out when they got to Havenport. “One of the agents on the case, Mike Weston?”  


“Yeeeeah?” Claudia tilted her head to the side, red hair dangling downwards as she did so. “Oh my god, ex boyfriend?” She guessed, eyes widening as she did so. “Ex-love of your life?”  


“No, no, ew, no, nothing like that.” Steve sighed, trying to center himself. “He’s my brother.”  


“You’re what now?” Claudia asked, sitting straight up and looking directly at Steve. “But you don’t have a brother.”  


“I do, it’s worse than that, well, more than that, but he’s my…my twin.”  


“You’re excusawhat?” Claudia was so baffled by the admission that she could barely get the sentence out. “But you don’t have the same last name, I mean, that’s crazy! You having a twin? Good one, Jinksy. You’re getting better at the lying thing, I-”  


“Claud, I’m not pulling your leg,” he stated. “I’m serious. Michael Weston is my twin brother. You’ll see it the second you see him, so you might as well know now, and as for the last name thing, well, our family sort of fell apart when Olivia died, and Mike took my mom’s last name, I mean, he…I…we had never really gotten along before that, and it just tore everything up.”  


“But…he’s your twinsy…how could you not get along?” she asked, more than a little confused. “Aren’t you supposed to be able to like, feel each other’s pain and freaky twin shit like that?”  


“Maybe, but we don’t.” He shrugged. “Look, it’s going to be enough of a surprise for him when I show up there, so I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t a big surprise for you, too.”  


“Okay…” Claudia wasn’t really sure what to make of this, and she slumped into her seat, eyeing her partner. “Well do you wanna talk about it?” she asked. “I mean, you’re my best friend, if you wanna talk about it we can-”  


“I don’t.” Steve cut her off, shaking his head. “Just get some rest, okay?”  


“Okay.”  


For once, Claudia didn’t argue and she didn’t pry. After all, she wasn’t sure what she would say to Steve right now. Having a twin, that was a big thing for her to have kept secret from him, and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. At the same time, she wanted to make sure that he was alright. He seemed more shaken than anything else, and Claudia hated to see him that way, especially when they would have to focus all of their attention on securing the artifact. Maybe this would be a chance for the two brothers to get back into touch, to get them back on a more level playing field. Without Joshua, Claudia wasn’t sure what she would do, and it upset her to know that Jinks could have a brother – a twin, no less, that he never spoke to. She wanted to help him, she really did, but she didn’t know how.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here's chapter two...yes, there is some AU stuff being added onto this, but in a crossover world, that sort of has to happen, I hope the liberties that I took don't offend!

            “Alright, for those of you who don’t already know, Agent Steven Jinks from the ATF and his partner Claudia Donovan are coming in today to work with us on the rest of this case. I want all of you to be as accommodating as possible; as of today, this is their case, too.” Agent Debra Parker looked around the room, half expecting to be met with a chorus of opposition to the words that she had just said.

            “What did you say?” Mike Weston looked up, all of the color draining from his face as he did so. 

            “Agents Steven Jinks and Claudia Donovan from the ATV will be officially joining us on this case, Mr. Weston,” she repeated, staring Mike down as though daring him to argue with her. “Is that alright with you?” Her tone made it clear that it was happening, whether it was alright with him or not. 

            “Just fine.” Mike nodded, but the second he got the chance, he left the room.

            The first time she had said it, he could have just misheard her, but the second? There was absolutely no mistaking her words the second time around, and Mike really, really did not like what she had had to say. However, he was well aware that, not only was this his job, but it was the one thing that he really wanted to do with his life, and there was a lot at stake with this case right now. To risk arguing against a superior and getting thrown off of the most important case of his life was simply not worth it. That being said, he needed some time to himself, time to breathe and process the information that he had just been given.

            He headed outside, going around to the back of the building. He leaned against the brick wall and let out a hefty sigh. This case was so tough already, and this was only going to make it more difficult for him. Mike reached up, running his fingers through his short hair, wondering what he was going to say when people asked why he and Steven Jinks looked so much alike.

            Mike had made it known that he had brothers that he didn’t get alone with (and one that he did), and while the government knew about his own change in last name, he doubted that they would have passed that information down to Debra or Ryan. It was far from relevant to the case, and frankly, if it were Mike deciding what information was pertinent, former last names would be far from the top of his list.

 -----------------------------------------------------

            “Mike?” The young agent was pulled from his thoughts by a familiar voice, and by the time he looked up, he already knew that it was Ryan Hardy who would be looking back at him.

            “Finally using my first name, I see,” Mike stated, in an attempt to get Ryan talking about anything other than what they both knew was about to come up.

            “Well, you asked me to, so just giving you that small victory,” Ryan stated, folding his arms across his chest and looking at Mike. “You okay?” 

            “Yeah, fine. Why?” 

            “Well first off, you’re lying to me – don’t do that. I don’t like it. I need people around me that I can trust at all times, and even if you’re telling that lie for a mundane reason, I don’t want to hear it. Second, I saw the way you reacted to what Parker said, and I wanted to make sure that you were alright.” 

            “Like I said, I’m fine. I just don’t understand why the ATF needs to come in on this. This is our case, and I don’t understand what they have that would be able to help us.” Covering his tracks wasn’t something that Mike was very good at – he was a very honest young man, and his lying skills? Well, they were about as good as those of his twin brother. 

            “I’m not sure either, to be honest,” Ryan offered. “But they have something, and if they’re being brought in this late in the game, it must be big, but stop trying to pull the wool over my eyes, Mike. Something else is eating at you other than confusion, and if you don’t tell me what it is, I might have to insist that you take more time off. You’re wound too tightly for a case like this.” 

            “Oh, I’m wound tightly?” Mike shot back, looking at Ryan, one eyebrow raised. 

            “The difference between me and you is that I was already this tightly wound, you? This is new for you. You’ve been through a lot in the past few weeks, and I just don’t want to see it take you out completely, I-”

            “He’s my brother, okay?” Mike interrupted Ryan, wanting to prove that he wasn’t about to be taken over by this case. It wasn’t beating him. Sure, maybe for a few days when he had first come back, he had been angry, violent, and scared, but he was coming back from that now.           

            “Who is?”

            “Steven Jinks. He’s my brother. Long story short – you know my family life hasn’t been the best, we’re not the closest, and a few years ago I changed my last name, taking my mom’s maiden name, and sort of stepped away from everyone that I was close to. I wanted to take my own life into my own hands and not be tied to all of the Jinks family drama.” He knew the questions were going to come up sooner or later, he might as well offer them up now. 

            “He’s…your brother? Your last name is Jinks?” 

            “No, my last name _was_ Jinks. Now it’s Weston, and yes. He’s my brother.” Mike closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath of the cold, Maryland air. “He’s my twin brother.”

            “You have a twin brother and you never thought to mention that?” Ryan asked.

            “We’ve been a little busy, and besides, I haven’t talked to him in almost three years. Look, I don’t want you to make a big deal out of this, alright? It’s going to be tough enough for Steve and I to be around each other without everyone asking us questions and trying to figure out what’s going on, so if you could pass that along to the other agents, I’d much appreciate it.” 

            “Wow. This really has you worked up.” Ryan let out a low whistle. Even right after Mike had come back from injury leave, beating up a suspect, he had never seen Mike so unglued. 

            “We just don’t get along,” Mike said quickly, shrugging his shoulders. “I really don’t want to talk about it, just tell Parker that it won’t effect me doing my job. I will work with him just like I would work with anyone else. I know that this case is bigger than my little family feud, and if Steve is being brought in on this case, I’m sure that he can be the bigger person, too.” 

            “Can I ask one more question?” Ryan asked, tilting his head to the side. 

            “Sure.” 

            “What was it all about? The falling out that you had with him?” 

            “I dunno, a lot of stuff. I mean, we had been on the rocks for years, but when our sister died, we were on opposite ends of a debate, and it just ended up tearing a rift in everyone’s relationship. Steve got mad and stopped talking to me and our mother, and one of my other brother’s was on his side, and the other? Well, he and I are just fine.” 

            “You had a sister that died?” Ryan frowned. “I didn’t know that.”

            “There’s a lot that you don’t know about me, Hardy. It’s just not stuff that you need to know.” With that, Mike turned, walking back into the station. He knew that he had to brace himself for the arrival of his brother, he just didn’t know if there was anything that could legitimately prepare him for that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading, I hope that you enjoyed the second chapter! Interaction will occur in the next one, I promise!  
> -V and Chris


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait on this! Been a bit busy <3

            When Steve and Claudia walked into the Sheriff’s station where the FBI was set up in Havenport, Mike didn’t even have to look up to know that they had arrived. He was working at a computer, focusing on putting together profiles electronically, when the room around him fell silent. The hustle and bustle stopped almost entirely, and Mike knew that that was for one reason, and one reason only. People were doing a double take, because while they weren’t carbon copies of each other, they were identical twins, and looked similarly enough to catch people off guard.

            “Well what are you all staring at? Get back to work!”

It was Ryan Hardy’s voice that broke through the excruciating silence, and the noise of the office returned – paper’s shuffling, people talking, though Mike knew now that the murmurs were about him and Steven more than they were about the case. Mike looked up from his computer and made eye contact with Ryan, silently thanking him for what he had just done. Ryan just nodded, letting Mike know that the gratitude was not lost.

            “You should go talk to him.” Claudia elbowed Steve in the side, angling her head towards where Mike was trying to go back to work.

            “I can’t.” Steve shook his head.

            “Look, you two are going to be working together, and if you can’t both do your jobs with the other in the room, it’s gonna be a problem, so talk. Get whatever shit that’s between out of the way, or at least swept under the rug enough to solve this case.” Claudia, who was very rarely ever serious, looked at Steve with eyes that said “all business.” “People are dying, Jinksy. There’s not time right now for your petty rivalry.” 

            “It’s not petty!” Steve felt that the rivalry was perfectly warranted, but at the end of the day, Claudia’s expression told him that didn’t matter to her at all. “You’re not gonna let this go, are you.”           

            “Correct.” She grinned at him and shoved him forwards, closer to where Mike was working. “Though if it’s gonna get heated, take it outside. People are trying to save lives in here.”

            “Gotcha.” Steve walked forwards, shifting awkwardly. “Um, Mike?” 

            “Yeah?” Mike didn’t even look up from his computer. He knew who was talking to him, and he was hoping that if he buried himself far enough into his work, he wouldn’t have to look at his brother, he wouldn’t have to talk to him, and maybe he’d just disappear, but alas, that was not the way in which the world worked. 

            “Mike, will you look at me?” Steve stated.

            “I’m busy.” 

            “I can see that, but we work together now.” Steve gulped, trying to remain calm – this was hard for him, and he knew that it must be hard for Mike as well. 

            “What do you want?” Mike turned, looking at him, eyebrow raised. “Deb briefed you, I assume, so what else do you need?” 

            “I just think you and I need to talk,” Steve stated. 

            “You’re the one who stopped talking to me, Steven. That was your choice.” Mike felt a weight in his throat – not the kind that signified tears were on the way, but the other sort, the sort where you just felt ill.

            “But you didn’t fight it. Maybe I’m the one who said it, but we were both thinking it.” 

            “Not. Here.” Mike reached out, grabbing Steve’s arm. He dragged him outside, where they could be alone, not wanting this argument to get in the way of his career – he had already been called up to the bigs a lot sooner than he ever would have expected it, and if he blew it now, well, he might never get a second chance at a case this big. 

            Once they were outside, they stood awkwardly, facing each other, really seeing each other for the first time in three years. They were so different, the two of them, and despite their near identical appearances, they could never be mistaken for the other once conversation started. 

            “Well?” Mike broke the silence, looking at his brother, one eyebrow quirked. 

            “What happened to you?” Steve blurted out, noticing the cuts and scars on his brother’s face. 

            “Nothing, just work.” He shrugged. “It’s fine.”           

            “You’re lying,” Steve said quietly, his eyes cast away from his brother. 

            “I hate it when you do that.” 

            “I know.” Steve sighed. He had known this was going to be hard, but he hadn’t been aware of just how difficult it was going to be to see Mike again. 

           When they weren’t talking, when they weren’t seeing each other at all, it was almost easy to pretend that the other didn’t exist, especially when they both threw themselves into their jobs, but now? Well now it was difficult. They were going to have to figure it out, though, because their jobs needed them to be able to work together, and this was the sort of case where any issue was a big issue. 

            “Was it Carroll’s guys?” Steve asked finally. 

            “Yeah.” Mike nodded, because really, what was the point of telling a lie to a human lie detector? 

            “Oh.” Steve shifted awkwardly, not really sure what to say to that. Was he upset that his brother had come close enough to a serial killer, or maybe more than one? Yes, but he didn’t know how to voice relief that his brother had lived to tell about it, not when they spent so much time apart, disliking each other, each pretending that the other didn’t exist. 

            “Why are you here?” Mike asked, looking up at Steve.           

            “It’s sort of hard to explain,” Steve admitted. His new job wasn’t really something that he knew how to talk to, and Mike? Well Mike had always thrown himself head first into the real. He needed facts, he needed reason and rationality, and his suspension of disbelief, even when watching movies as a child, had always been abysmal. How the hell was Steve supposed to explain the Warehouse to him? 

            “Well do your best,” Mike snapped. “We’re together on this, so I need to know why you’re here.” 

            “Look, I’m really not authorized to tell you, there’s just something on the case that my partner and I know really well, and we’ll be of use.” 

            “There is no way that you have higher clearance than me on this case,” Mike stated, arms folded across his chest, attempting to stare his brother down. 

            “Not higher clearance, just…just different.” Steve reached up, rubbing his head, an action that had replaced running his hands through it when he had first shaved his head. 

            “Seriously?” Mike looked at Steve, almost hurt. What the hell did his brother know about Joe Carroll that he didn’t? After his thesis at Quantico, all of the time and effort that he had put into both that, and into the case currently, there was no one who knew more about Joe Carroll except for Ryan Hardy, and of course, Joe Carroll himself, so what did Steve know that he couldn’t tell Mike. 

            “Seriously.” 

            “I know more about Joe Carroll than pretty much anyone else in the fucking world, and you’re telling me that you know something you can’t tell me?” Mike looked at his brother, incredulous, verging on anger. He was frustrated enough that they were going to be working together, and the knowledge that something was being kept from him only heightened that frustration. 

            “Yes, look, it’s not…you deal in cold, hard facts, and this isn’t that, so…” Steve trailed off, not sure of how else to explain it without giving away information he wasn’t allowed to share. 

            “Speculation?” Mike’s eyes widened. “They brought you in for _speculation_? Jesus Christ, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”

            “Mike, no, it’s not like that, it’s…complicated.”           

            “So complicated that you can’t possibly explain it to me?” Mike asked, his arms one again folded across his chest. 

            “Well, that and I’m not allowed to…” 

            “Fine.” Mike nodded, though not in the understanding sort of way, the angered sort of way. He didn’t say anything else, he just turned around, storming back into the office, going back to work, trying to pretend that conversation hadn’t happened. 

            “Gonna guess that didn’t go so well,” Claudia stated, walking outside as Mike went back in. Jinks just shrugged, looking down at the ground. “Awwww, does poopy pants need a hug?” She walked towards him with open arms, and Jinks, as mad as he was, couldn’t turn her away. After all, his anger was with Mike, not Claudia. Never Claudia, and as she hugged him, he realized how lucky he was to have her here, because he didn’t think he’d be able to do this without his best friend by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more! Also, if you have suggestions or critiques, we are open to suggestion!


	4. Chapter Four

            That night, Mike paced back and forth around his motel room. Security there had gone up since Mike had been kidnapped from his own room, but he still had a lot of trouble sleeping there, even though he wasn’t in the same room as before. He’d been kept up nights, worrying about the case, and afraid for his own life, as well as those of others, and now he had his brother to worry about, as well, and while Steve was a good agent, he was ATF, he wasn’t FBI, he’d never worked a case like this before.

            Then again, neither had Mike.           

            With a sigh, Mike paced the perimeter of the room again, repeatedly running his hands through his sandy hair.

            12 AM

            1 AM

            2 AM.

            He repeatedly tried to sleep, but it always ended up with him getting back up and walking around the room in flannel pajama pants and a slightly faded Weslyan t-shirt. What he really wanted was to go outside, to go for a walk, but he was afraid to go outside alone at night, he knew that they were being watched, and he knew that he was supposed to be dead. Roderick was meant to have killed him. Roderick was dead now, but that didn’t much matter to Mike. There were more where he had come from, more that would be willing to kill him, and honestly, just as willing to kill his brother.

            A sharp knock on his door started him, and Mike instantly moved for the gun he kept in the door of the nightstand.

            “Who is it,” he called, weapon at the ready. 

            “It’s Claudia, can I come in?”

            Mike didn’t know Claudia, and he honestly wouldn’t have trusted her at all, but she had come with Steve. While he didn’t see eye to eye on everything with his brother, he knew that Steve wouldn’t get involved with someone like Joe Carroll, and his ability to detect lies would ensure that, if Claudia was a follower, Steve would have known.

            He set down the gun and opened the door.

            “Hi.” He didn’t move back to let her into the room, because honestly, he wasn’t really sure what she was doing here. She was Steve’s partner, and yes, they were working together, but it was verging on 3 in the morning, and he had been sure he was the only one in the motel still awake. After all, they all had to be at work in not too much time.

            “I just wanted to let you know that I know, okay?” Claudia looked up at him. “I know what happened to your sister, I know that you and your mother, fighting the death penalty got Steve angry, and I want you to know that I see both sides of the arguments at hand, here.” Sometimes it was hard for Claudia to be serious, but right now, there was so much at stake on so many levels, and she just couldn’t let that go. “I just want you to know that I’ve worked with Steve for awhile now, and he’s not going to let all of that get in the way of doing his job.”

            “It might help me to believe that if I knew what his job was,” Mike pointed out.

            “He’s ATF,” Claudia stated. “He’s-”

            “I’m not stupid.” Mike looked down at Claudia, mildly insulted. “I may not be able to tell instantly when someone’s lying, but I know better than to just blindly believe that the ATF was brought in on this particular case, this late in the game. Something else is going on with you two, and I wish I knew what it was, I really do, because I think it would be easier for everyone to do our jobs if secrets weren’t being kept.”

            “Look, it’s really complicated, second Jinksy,” Claudia stated.

            “Seriously?” Mike rolled his eyes at the new nickname, sort of hoping that wasn’t going to become a regular thing. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Claudia, she just didn’t exactly strike him as a professional. Also, she looked about 18.

            “Yeah, seriously.” She nodded. “Maybe it doesn’t all make sense, and there’s probably a lot that doesn’t add up, but you need to trust that I’m here, that you’re brother’s here, because we genuinely have a way to help, and-”

            “And all I’m saying is that if I knew what that was, I’d be able to understand better what’s going on. It’s keeping secrets in cases like this that get people killed, okay? Enough people have died for this already.”

            “I know.” Claudia reached out, putting her hand on Mike’s arm. “And Steve and I are here to stop that from happening.”    

            “I don’t…I don’t understand that, Claudia! I feel like I’m just saying the same thing to you, over and over again, and you’re not hearing it. I don’t like being kept in the dark.”

            “No one does,” she pointed out. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not necessary from time to time, but we’re all working together, and maybe it’s hard for you to work with your brother, but it’s just as hard for him to work with you. It was hard for him to go up to you today and try to talk to you, and I know you guys got into it, or what have you, and that it didn’t go very well, but try again, okay? Just…talk to him.”

            With that, Claudia left, and honestly, Mike felt just as confused, if not moreso, than he had before. He lay back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, wondering if this was ever going to be over – this case, the tension between himself and Steve, and at some point, in all of that worry, he managed to fall asleep for about 45 minutes before his alarm went off. Luckily for Mike, he was used to living off of coffee.

\------------------------------------------------

            “Hey, Steven.” Mike walked up to his brother in the office.

            “Yeah?” Steve was surprised that Mike was talking to him, but hey, they were working together, rivalry or not, they had to be civil. _Not everything has to be a fight_ , he reminded himself.

            “There’s a suspect in holding room A, I want you to find out if he’s a follower.”

            “Me?” Steve looked at Mike. “But I’m not cleared for that!”

            “Look,” Mike lowered his voice. “You and I both know that you can tell if someone’s lying right away, and we don’t really have time to spare. Just go in there, ask if he’s a follower, come right back here and tell me.”

            “Are you sure? We could both get burned over this…” Okay, Steve knew that he wasn’t going to lose his job for that. He was a Warehouse Agent now, not really ATF anymore, and he had done far more..unscrupulous things to find artifacts, but the FBI was right here, and he didn’t want to get thrown off the case before they could retrieve the artifact, and somewhere, deep down, he didn’t want to see Mike lose his job. Maybe they didn’t get along, but he knew how hard his twin had worked for this.

            “There isn’t time to waste on stuff like that right now,” Mike snapped, and Steve started, seeing something in his brother that he had never seen before. A willingness to break the rules. Mike had always been so by the book, so perfect, and fact based, and now, here he was, willing to skirt the edges a little to get something done, and even though the situation was heavy and the stakes were high, Steve liked seeing that in Mike.

            “On it.” He disappeared to the holding room, and not two minutes later, he was back.

            “Well?” Mike looked at his brother.

            “He’s not,” Steve replied.

            “You’re sure?”

            “Positive.” Steven nodded.

            “Alright, get back to work,” Mike ordered, turning to head back to his own project before stopping and turning again, looking right at his brother. “And Steve?”

            “Yeah?”

            “Thank you.”

            “No problem.”

            Both young men turned away, going back to their own work, but it was different now, because after three years of not talking, they had just worked together for the first time in ages, and as weird as it was, it also felt kind of good.


	5. Chapter Five

            “Hey.” Ryan Hardy was headed for some coffee in the back room at the Sheriff’s station, and when he entered, he saw Steve Jinks, sitting alone, twisting a mug in his hands, staring down at it as though the brown liquid inside had the answer to all of life’s questions.

            “Hey,” he muttered back, not looking at the FBI agent.

            “Mind if I join you?” Ryan asked.

            “No.” Steve shrugged.

            “Heard about that little stunt Mike had you pull,” Ryan stated, pouring himself a cup of coffee and sitting down, looking at his partner’s twin. They did look similar, but they also had their obvious differences, physically as well as internally.

            “Oh, uh…yeah, I’m sorry about that, I-”

            “Hey, hey, no need to apologize.” Ryan snorted with laughter. “It’s the exact sort of thing that I’d have done. He told me you have an uncanny ability to know when someone’s lying.”

            “I mean, it’s not, it’s just-”

            “Nothing you have to explain to me,” Ryan stated, cutting Steve off for a second time. “Mike obviously trusts you, and he’s about the only person around here I can trust, so if he trusts you, you must be worth trusting.”

            “He trusts me?” Steve looked up, making eye contact with Ryan, honestly a little surprised to hear that his brother trusted him.

            “Like and trust are two different things, Steven,” Ryan explained. “Can’t say he likes you too much, but I can say that he wouldn’t have sent you in there with a suspect if he didn’t trust you.”

            “Oh.”

            “See, now you’ve got that look on your face that says you want to ask me something,” Ryan stated.

            “Oh, I uh…” Steve trailed off, shrugging instead of properly responding.

            “Well go ahead, we’ve got work today, can’t spend all day beating around questions with “ums” and “ohs.”

            “There are bigger things going on here than me and my brother, sir,” Steve replied.

            “I know that, and as much as you’re not supposed to let personal stuff get in the way, sometimes it’s a lot easier to get work done when the air is clear, so talk to me.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Ask me what you want to ask me, we’ll get it out of the way, then we can all do our jobs just a little bit better.”

            “Alright.” Steve nodded. “What happened to him? The scars? He said it had something to do with the cult, with Joe Carroll and his people, but he didn’t tell me what, and it just…looks like it was really bad, I just want to know what happened to my brother.”

            “Not exactly an easy thing to talk about,” Ryan admitted. “Especially seeing as it’s probably more my fault than not.”

            “What do you mean?” Steve frowned. Mike and Ryan seemed to be at least somewhat close, and that wouldn’t be the case if Ryan had been responsible for Mike getting hurt, was it? Then again, there was almost always more to a story than what it seemed.

            “Well, he got abducted by some of the cult, they tortured him for information that he had, and he didn’t give it up, but it was information that would have hurt me more than, well, pretty much anyone else, and he knew how much it meant to me.” Ryan looked away. Mike had protected Claire’s location, and while he knew that Mike had done that because it was his job, because it was the law, he also knew that Mike had done it for him. “They were only seconds away from killing him when we showed up, he was out of work for weeks, and then when he came back, he uh…well, Joe used him just a little bit more to try and get to me.”

            “Jesus Christ,” Steve whispered. His brother had almost died, and he wouldn’t have known anything about that if he hadn’t been called into this case. His fist clenched, his whole body tensing, just thinking about that. Maybe he and Mike weren’t close, not anymore, but Mike was still his brother, still his twin, and the knowledge that someone had tried to kill him – that they had come so close to actually doing so – had him nearly paralyzed with anger.

            “Steven,” Ryan looked at him. “Don’t get angry, okay? Help us. Help us stop Carroll from doing anything like that again, to Mike, or to anyone else.”

            “Yes, sir.” Steve nodded, relaxing, but just a little bit. “I’m here to help, and we’ll help. I’m just not 100% sure of what to do.”

            “Just follow our lead, okay? When the time comes, you’ll know it.”

            “Hey, sorry to interrupt this little pow wow, but we’ve got a woman in the hospital, said her husband and some of his friends stabbed her, tried to kill her. She might have information, might not, but either way, it’s worth a shot,” Mike stated, entering the room, more to get Ryan than anything else.

            “Good, coming.” Ryan stood up instantly, his coffee forgotten, and Steve rose to join them, but Ryan shook his head, and Steve sat back down. He was there to get the artifact, and odds were, the artifact was with Carroll, not at the hospital.     

He and Claudia would sit tight until they had the address, then they just had to go in, neutralize the poem, and hopefully, everyone would snap out of it, and no one else would have to die for this, but as always, it was never as easy as it should have been, and Steve wished that his brother weren’t so close to the case. He knew how dangerous these artifacts would be, and if Mike had already almost died once, maybe twice, for this case, what would stop the third time from being the last?

\---------------------------------------------

            “How was your talk with Steve?” Mike asked, gripping the wheel of the car as he drove to the hospital.

            “Brief,” Ryan said. “But informational.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean he asked about your scars, so I told him what happened with you and the followers, with you and Carroll.”

            “Oh.” Mike sighed, keeping his eyes focused on the road – hyper focused, even, because it was easier to pretend to be intent on one thing, it kept his mind from wandering. “And?”

            “And he got upset, Mike. Maybe you two don’t get along, but he cares about you, and he doesn’t want to see you get hurt anymore.”

            “Okay.”

Mike was ready to leave it at that, ready to focus back on the case, to pretend that his brother wasn’t there, at least for as long as he could before he had to jump back into the world of seeing Steve behind every corner. He wasn’t used to it right now, and he wasn’t sure that he was ever going to be used to it again. Steve was his brother, yes, but someone that he had long since written off as no longer a part of his life. The falling out that they had had was difficult, and it had hurt them both, and it wasn’t just something that could be instantly forgiven after three years.

            “Mike?”

            “Mhmm?” Mike didn’t turn to face Ryan, but the other agent could tell that he was being heard.

            “I think you should talk to him.”

            “Why?” Mike sighed. “We’ve already said everything that needed to be said, we’ve had the conversations, and the fights, and bringing up old shit, it’s only going to get in the way of the case, and you and I both know that we can’t afford that, not with this one, not with Carroll.”

            “Maybe, but it’s not always about work, Mike,” Ryan pointed out. “I just think you should at least think about letting him back in, you know, before it’s too late.”

            Ryan didn’t say it, and it didn’t have to be said, but Mike had already almost died more than once on this case, and with the level of danger involved with what they were doing, there was a solid chance that they would never make it out of this alive, and making peace with Steve wouldn’t stop death from coming, and it wouldn’t solve the case, but maybe, just maybe, it would help bring Mike to a better place.

            “Alright.” Mike nodded. “When we get back, I’ll talk to him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, it should get more interesting after this...I hope. Sorry that it's been dragging!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys for reading the first chapter of my weird crossover, and I hope that you enjoyed it!


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